Passing through Sunday’s Dakar in Riyadh, Rudi Garcia, French coach ofAl Nasrreturned to the enthusiasm created by the hiring of Cristiano Ronaldo in his team, aware that the arrival of Portuguese in Saudi Arabia will accelerate the development of football in the Middle East.
Journalist : How does it feel to welcome star Cristiano Ronaldo into your ranks?
Rudy Garcia : “It’s fantastic. The best for us, for Al-Nassr. The best for Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo is more than a player. He is one of the best players in the world, five times Ballon d’Or I think for the development of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, it’s very, very important. If I can make a comparison for Cristiano, I think it’s a bit like Pele’s arrival (at Cosmos New York) in his time, especially for the development of football, sport and culture in Saudi Arabia.
It’s crazy how he’s put our club in the spotlight. Now everyone knows where our club is in the whole world (….) I think we went from 800,000 to 10 million (followers) in a few hours, a few days thanks to the arrival of Cristiano.
Journalist: What’s your mood?
Rudy Garcia : He’s physically fine, we suspected it. As I often think: the greatest champions are the easiest to manage. He merged into the group. He was seen joking and laughing gleefully with his new team mates. He was with us for the last game, even though he couldn’t play. He was in the locker room, he rode his bike and he was happy for us in goal. He’s totally with his team. He wants to win, he’s a winner. He will drag everyone behind him from this point of view as well.
Journalist: when will he play? Will it be against PSG on January 19?
Rudy Garcia : Not the next match against Al-Shabab (January 14, ed), which is an important match, because it will still be suspended. It will be against Al-Ettifaq, at home, on 22 January. (On the 19th, ed) It won’t be Al-Nassr’s shirt. It will be a mix between Al-Hilal and al-Nassr. For development, to see PSG, to see the great Parisian players, it’s actually a good thing. But three days later we have a league match. But it’s not very serious, the main thing is that it shows how passionate Saudi Arabia is about sports, football.
Afterwards, the only thing I wish for Ronaldo is that he rediscovers the pleasure of playing and his smile. Because in recent months between Manchester, the national team and then on a private level, he has not only had easy moments. If he finds the pleasure of playing it will already be a goal achieved.
